Review: Little Dragon- Ritual Union

July kind of sucked in Vancouver- weather wise. It was cloudy, cold, it goddamn rained. But right towards the end of the month, things turned around. As if Mother Nature in all her venomous and contemptuous wrath decided to show some mercy. At right around the same time, Ritual Union, the third LP from Little Dragon dropped; to those familiar with Little Dragon headed up by Yukimi Nagano, they would agree that the timing could not have been more perfect. Little Dragon's mysterious, quirky, delightful, and uplifting brand of electro pop goes perfectly with my favourite season once it's in full effect. When I listened to Ritual Union for the first time, it was obvious that I liked it, but I wasn't sure if it was better than their previous album, the excellent Machine Dreams. If I was going to answer this question I needed to understand in what ways it was different, and if those differences yielded a better or worse album.

Upon initial inspection, Nagano's voice is immediately familiar to those who spent any time with their previous album, Machine Dreams. Instantly alluring, silky smooth, and paced elegantly and logically with the music it accompanies, listening to Nagano throughout Ritual Union reaffirms my belief that she is one of the premier vocal talents out there right now. My first few plays of the album had me more or less convinced that Ritual Union, at least in terms of Nagano's vocal contribution, was a logical and sensible continuation of the ground explored in Machine Dreams. While that is certainly satisfactory to some degree, there is something slightly disappointing about a group like Little Dragon, who I found so vibrantly unique at first, to stumble tragically into redundancy and repetitiveness. I wanted to give Nagano more credit, so I forced Ritual Union through a much more rigorous and borderline anal analytical wringer; I'm pleased I did, for I believe the findings to be most positive. It took repeated listenings, but I'm now certain there are some pretty key differences between how she sang on this album versus the last.

Top 5 Albums of 2011 to Still Look Forward To

We're about half way through 2011, and so far there's been some pretty good stuff! PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Destroyer,  Cults, Fleet Foxes, Cut Copy, Tune Yards, and plenty of other acts have made our last year before the apocalypse well worth our while. But what have we to look forward to heading into summer and fall? Well quite a bit actually! Read on if you dare! Or something.

5. Bjork- Biophillia- release date TBA

Over the past few years and couple releases, Bjork has ejected much of the slightly tragic innocence and cultural naivety from her persona. She's transitioned into something of a more matriarchal, even monarchical role. Between tracks like “Oceania” and “Declare Independence” she has become downright domineering. While this new role has grown increasingly divisive among fans- Volta was not as universally well received as past offerings- I really like it! Bjork's been by no means absent from the industry, as she's been involved in multiple collaborative efforts, but it it's been too long since a full LP. The announcement of Biophillia- cryptically dubbed as some sort of multi media project, now appears to be just what we need to fill the gap. Biophillia goes far beyond just another collection of songs, as every track will also be released with a corresponding ipad app. The functionality and connectivity of the songs and the apps so far has yet to be fully disclosed, all though one appears to be some sort of space invaders style mini game, with the catch being if you win, the song ends prematurely. Judging by the slightly bewildering but undeniably cool new website Bjork's put up, where you can hear some of her insight on the process, Biophillia will be nothing if not interesting. Remember back when people thought it was weird when she made an album without instruments?

Check out the first track “Crystalline”

Little Dragon at Fortune

Tuesday, January 11-

I quite like Fortune; in the murky parochial recesses of Chinatown, cluttered with it's strange little shops is this ultra modern exterior. It seems sterile and monolithic and completely out of place- it's pretty cool! Inside it's a sufficient spot, it's a bit too elongated and the stage is tad small, but it works. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start, beginning with the opener Billygoat. They were... something. I don't know what. Honestly, a few days later it's hard to recall any specifics. There were no vocals, it was very minimal. It seemed almost pretentiously subdued; I was half expecting someone to tell me I had to listen to the notes they weren't playing. I was much more compelled by the pretty cool visual aspect they had to accompany it. It wasn't terribly flashy or opulent, but visually striking; as in sparkling whales petrifying into mountains. That kind of stuff. Aside from that, I don't think I need to hear Billygoat again. If I did, I probably wouldn't know it. I was a little put off that after Billygoat it took over an hour and twenty minutes for set up. It was an excessively long time for something that isn't the Radiohead multicolour brain melting chandelier light show. But I digress...